Commentary: Celtics hopeful that Williams will be a steal

As we sit here some four months before Robert Williams can put on a Boston Celtics uniform in a regular-season game, his selection Thursday night in the NBA draft can be deemed a success as much for where it occurred as for what he might be.

The Celtics put themselves in essentially a no-lose situation by taking the 6-foot-10 protector and rattler of rims. He easily could turn out to be the steal of the draft. He could give the Celtics the kind of large athleticism they need, and there is hope that he may develop quickly.

The fact he was projected so much higher meant the Celtics never got him in for an individual workout. But obviously those drafting earlier had concerns and didn’t want to take him higher, fearing the risk.

But at 27th overall, there is no real peril for the Celtics. If he works out, they will embrace their good fortune. If Williams doesn’t quite live up to his promise, hey, it was the 27th pick.

As opposed to the case during his playing days, no one will question Danny Ainge’s shot selection here.

Williams is, by every measure, the type of athlete who can alter games with his defense. But he was suspended for two games at Texas A&M for a “violation of university policy,” and scouting reports question his motivation, which can be a nebulous and often unfair tag to pin on someone.

If that led teams to pass on him and deliver the Celtics a DeAndre Jordan or Clint Capela, Ainge will treat every doubting scout to dinner at Chipotle.

“You never know everything about everybody, obviously,” Ainge said after the draft was complete. “We’re comfortable with who he is, and a lot of people that we talked to, his coaches and his teammates, his trainers, we checked with a lot of people that are familiar with him and everybody likes Robert. I know that he’s not perfect, but most players aren’t, and we think his upside … he’s got a great upside. We’re very excited to have him. I’m not trying to defend our reason for drafting him, but we find he’s going to be a good player. We like what we found on his background checks.”

Responding to the written critiques, he added, “You know, we do our own background checks. We don’t really read what everybody else says. But, you know, when you say people are projected, like, that was before they even went through the draft process, so I never really believe that. I think that the game is changing a little bit, but as far as having skilled bigs, we have skilled bigs on our team right now. But he brings an element to the game. He’s very young, and he still has upside. I think there’s parts of his game that have been untapped so far, as young as he is. But, like I said, he provides rim protection and rebounding, for sure.”

Ainge saw Williams play twice this past season and a bit more the year before.

“But our staff saw him a lot more than that,” Ainge said. “He was a player that we liked coming into this draft process. He’s a rim protector and rebounder and a guy who can play above the rim on both ends of the court. We don’t have much of that. We have a little bit of that, but not what he can do.”

It helps, too, that Williams will be walking into a very good environment.

“Yeah, I think with all young players at whatever position, I think it’s just easier to play with veteran players that know how to play, a coach that knows what your strengths and weaknesses are and puts (you) in position to succeed, places where you can succeed,” Ainge said. “I think that will help him tremendously. He doesn’t have to try to do too much out of the gate and (can) just do what he does well.”

If Williams does, indeed, become an important player, Ainge may look back and be relieved that some of the talks he had Thursday didn’t pan out (similar to when he tried to give up the store for Justise Winslow three years ago).

The Celtics, according to league sources, explored a number of trade possibilities, but, as we were told, there’s a difference between talks and true negotiating, and it was a lot of the former Thursday and in the days prior.

“Leading into the draft, we knew we weren’t getting up (high) in the draft,” Ainge said. “We’d spent the last few weeks trying to figure out what the cost was to get into the top of the draft. We knew going into (Thursday) that it was very, very unlikely that was going to happen, so we were preparing for the 27th pick in the draft and we were preparing for opportunities to move up, not all the way to the top of the draft, but somewhere in the middle of the draft. And we were even preparing for opportunities if guys that we didn’t like were (at 27) and moving backward in the draft. That’s the same thing we do every year in the draft, prepare for any situation that comes up.”

Ainge said the Celtics discussed making a move to acquire a second-round pick, but “we don’t need more young players, really. We feel good about adding one positional player that has something that we don’t have, that does something that we don’t have.”

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